The City of Cluses

[- JO -]

Hello !

It's been a long time since I've posted a map.... There's a lot of work going on right now, and it's pretty frustrating!

Besides my job, I'm trying to move forward on two map projects at the same time, both of them long-term (a whole palace on Sktechup and a world map, both of which bring my computer to the limits of its capabilities... so it works slowly). But it's so frustrating not to finish a map that I started drawing another map, quite quickly, taking a detail from a map I posted here quite a while ago.
When I drew this first map, the junction between two continents really caught my attention, and I always thought that it was the perfect place to invent something a little special. So I imagined a kind of Panama channel, but on a city scale and with a medieval-fantastic technology. It is the city of Cluses (which means more or less "locks" in French). A lake in the centre of the city, fed by two rivers that come from artificial lakes (themselves fed by the surrounding mountains), provides the water needed to feed the locks that allow boats to pass from one coast to the other.
I also drew an illustration on the bottom right corner to make sure that we understand what the city looks like.

Almost the entire map has been drawn on an Ipad pro (except for shadows, labels, frame and rhumb lines). I wanted to try less marked tones, to leave more room for the texture of the paper (I always try to more or less copy Ilanthar's style, as far as color management is concerned... but it's really not easy). I had been working on my way of drawing mountains, and this map shows you a little bit of the results of these studies. I'm still trying to set my style with regard to forests....

I am well aware that I still have these scale problems: between the size of buildings, forests and mountains, there is not much that is balanced... I really need to work on this problem, but I must admit that this map was drawn more for fun (and to finish a map) than as a serious project.

It is a map that joins the others already drawn, who are part of Nossym's world (a world that serves as a basis for my wife to write a series of novels)

Feel free to comment or criticize, any map is an exercise for me

Cluses_final.jpg

[XCali]

Great map! I especially like the city connecting the two landmasses, it is rife with story potential. Just take what remarkable situations happened to Constantinople(Istanbul in the modern day)

So, well done.

[- JO -]

Great map! I especially like the city connecting the two landmasses, it is rife with story potential. Just take what remarkable situations happened to Constantinople(Istanbul in the modern day)

So, well done.

Thanks a lot, XCali ! It's true, it's a bit like the city of Constantinople, just the other way around : the boats are crossing the land

[Tiana]

Nice, the central city is so fun to look at but the entire piece is very well put together with lots of good details to inspect.

[J.Edward]

Nicely done, Joel
I can imagine Cluses would contain many wonders, being as prominent as it is.

[Ilanthar]

Wow, excellent! I love your use of line width and shading on this one. It gives it a very particular feeling to your forests and mountains.
And as per usual, the cities are great .

[Adfor]

The city placement makes this area look really fun to roleplay in.

I agree with Ilanthar, the line work is a great differentiation, especially on giving the mountains a sense of depth, great style.

Cheers!

IR

[Arimel]

Looks amazing to me! I agree with the others about the role-play-ability of this map. Keep going with the other commissions as well!

[- JO -]

Nice, the central city is so fun to look at but the entire piece is very well put together with lots of good details to inspect.

Thanks a lot, Tiana !

Nicely done, Joel
I can imagine Cluses would contain many wonders, being as prominent as it is.

Thanks, J. ... A good city to map, I think... when I'll find time ?!?

Wow, excellent! I love your use of line width and shading on this one. It gives it a very particular feeling to your forests and mountains.
And as per usual, the cities are great .

Thanks a lot, Ilanthar ! I'm glad you like the mountains, as I spent some time studying

The city placement makes this area look really fun to roleplay in.

I agree with Ilanthar, the line work is a great differentiation, especially on giving the mountains a sense of depth, great style.

Cheers!

IR

Thank you! The whole landmasses of this world was given by the spots on our dog's coat... almost ten years ago. And from the beginning, this place seemed appropriate to me to do something special there. With the surrounding islands, the pirates who sail there, I'm sure it's the right place for a lot of stories!

Looks amazing to me! I agree with the others about the role-play-ability of this map. Keep going with the other commissions as well!

Thanks a lot, Arimel ! Actually I'm thinking about drawing a map of the Twin cities of Maredale, just accross the western see of this map...

[ThomasR]

I really like this one ! From composition to the regional aspect of it and the city itself is an hommage to classic representations of old. Great job once again Joël ! The storytelling possibilities are also something really nice with this map. If you are after Ilanthar's style, maybe using less saturated colors or lowering the opacity on a multiply layer (notre ami fais toujours plus avec moins, c'est son talent pour la décroissance ).

Another great map anyways